UPDATE: St. Stephen boil water advisory won’t be lifted Wednesday

Residents on the municipal water system in St. Stephen will need to keep boiling their water for the time being.

The week-long boil water advisory is now expected to continue for a few more days, the municipality said Wednesday.

Officials said Public Health received the second water sample required to consider lifting the advisory on Wednesday morning.

Depending on the results of testing, municipal officials thought the advisory could be lifted as early as Wednesday afternoon.

“However, it will take longer for those results than our administration initially indicated,” the municipality said in an update Wednesday afternoon.

“We underestimated the time requirements for testing and it is with our apologies that we now say that the earliest we may receive the results from the bacterial growth tests will be the end of the week.”

In the meantime, all water destined for drinking, preparing infant formulas and juices, making ice, washing fruits and vegetables, cooking or dental hygiene should be held at a rolling boil for at least one minute.

Toddlers and infants should be sponge-bathed and caregivers need to ensure no bath water is swallowed.

The advisory was first issued last Wednesday after the municipality’s automated system indicated an “irregularity” in its water supply.

The municipality also dealt with an infrastructure failure at the main water well serving the community on Monday.

“At this time indications are that while the well will require significant repairs, this damage does not pose a threat to the water quality of the well,” officials said Tuesday.